Exploring the Essex Craft Beer Scene at Billericay Brewing Company

It’s great to see that the craft beer revolution has made its way far and wide, with breweries and bastions of decent beer appearing in the unlikeliest of places.

Yes, craft beer has made it to Essex, well to Billericay anyway. I popped up back to my homeland at the weekend to see what’s going on.

First, I met up with family members Billericay’s Railway, a lively pub with a good choice of local cask ales.

As well as a pre-wedding drink, it was another chance to ween my dear ol’ Dad off Coors Light.

A fee pints later, there was time enough time before food to get to the Billericay Brewing Co, a small brewery in town.

As well as serving their own cask ale and cider they sell there’s a small fridge of bottles, stocked with their past brews and a selection of well-known brewers from the UK, such as Siren, Beavertown and The Kernel.

As well as the option to take away beers, there’s room to enjoy on the premises; there are several tables inside and outside.

I went for a pint of Billericay Dickie (got to really on the first visit) but also tried the excellent Chapel Street Porter.

I always think porter on cask works well, as it’s a good temperature to taste the potential chocolate and coffee flavours while accentuating the smoothness.

With more time I could have easily worked my way through their beers, such as the Mild Bill and their Vanilla Porter.

I shall return on my next foray out of London to meet the Essex crew to do a more thorough tasting.